Probably Wouldn't Be This Way
by Lilly McFadden
Summary: A series of InuKag drabbles set after the well closes. Newest: 'At the Tree of Ages' Kagome reminisces about her first encounter with Inuyasha.


Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, although I do own a hearty appetite for Inuyasha fanfiction.

A/N: This is a series of InuKag drabbles inspired by Leann Rimes _I Probably Wouldn't Be This Way_. Since we cannot post lyrics from songs that are not a part of the public domain, I highly recommend watching the official video on Youtube. These drabbles will be in chronological order and will tell a story with a definite ending.

**At the Tree of Ages**

Kagome ran her fingers over the scar in the Goshinboku tree. In her mind, she could still recall the first moment she had met him, pinned to the Goshinboku tree and lifeless as the body now buried beneath its bowels.

* * *

Scared and disoriented from her fall, she headed towards the Goshinboku tree, its tall branches waving above the canopy of the forest like a hand beaconing her to its side. She entered the clearing with a flood of relief, quickly followed by panic that tripped icy fingers up her spine and gathered at the edges of her mind. There was no shrine, no home to welcome her. But what was there so forcibly grabbed her attention that all thoughts of home and panic fled. Pinned to the tree was a young man, an arrow, like the hand of a compass pointing its way to her destination, lodged in his heart. 

He was so beautiful, silver hair and pale skin glowing in the sunlight, that she was not able to resist the impulse to touch a piece of the frozen perfection before her. Tipped-toed and arms extended, she let the silky texture of his ears slip through her fingers while she studied the serene face before her. There was something ethereal about his features, a relaxed symmetry and beauty. He was easily the most beautiful creature she had ever seen. As she stared intently at him, his face mere inches from her own, she marveled at his smooth unblemished skin and admired the winged arch of his dark brows above the half moon of his lashes. Then, inexplicably the feeling of home came upon her stronger than ever before. She felt a compulsion to touch the arrow and would have had a spray of arrows and angry villagers not interrupted her.

Then, mere hours later, she came upon him again. The memory of his frozen beauty fresh in her mind, she came upon an even more painfully beautiful sight, that of an awakened young man with amber eyes that flashed with gold lightening in his vengeful visage. In repose, his face has been a pillar of artistic perfection. But mobile and animated, it became _more_. Both more beautiful and more terrible, as its expressions cajoled or threatened, soothed or scared. Millions of emotions bursting forth from behind the dam of his once frozen face.

And later, as the centipede woman crushed her against his legs, she realized that alive, he was also more touchable. Before neither touch nor sound could have reached him, but now her presence alone was enough to set his mobile features into the contemptuous scornful lines it currently held. Despite Kaede's warning, she reached for the arrow to free him because she wanted to live, but more than that, she wanted _him_ to live.

* * *

Kagome placed both her hands on the scar and leaned her cheek against its scar smoothened bark. At this tree, the roughened texture of the bark pressing into her hands and cheek, she felt the closest to him. Recalling the peace and serenity that had been stamped upon his features that first day, she wondered at its cause. Perhaps he had been at peace, his soul free to wonder the afterlife with his first love. They may have both perished in a typhoon of betrayal and broken trust, but no crinkle of his brow and no downward tilt of his lips had revealed his turbulent passing. He seemed to have slipped away from this earthly plain through nothing more than a sweet dream. She had only seen such marked tranquility on his features twice in all the time she had known him, once on the day he met her and again on the day he left her.

_A/N: Let me know what you think. Too melodramatic? Too boring? Too awesome? Any feedback is appreciated._


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